The animated versions of Shakespeare's plays are in a word, divine. The character's are beautiful and extremely well made. It is easy to fall in love with the style of the 'films', and if you get the chance you should definitely watch them. It's true that it can be hard to get a hold of them, but I urge people to do their best to try. They would make a fantastic aid in introducing younger children to the world of Shakespeare, though I have found that they go down well with an older audience too. The stories stay true to the original Shakespearean plays, but with a little animated extra on top. I love them, and there are a few well known voices mixed in there as well.
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minibalrog21 November 2005
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lukeallder25 February 2002w.s has never been told so well for kids the animation is beautiful especially T.V. 12TH night which stars the voice of Hugh grant these films are hard to get your hands on now but the globe theater does still sell a few of them made in Moscow these videos are priceless. you can also buy the books which are also in short supply ,but again odd places still sell them.well done to the team of artists that made these videos they are stunning
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TheLittleSongbird26 July 2018As said many times, have always had a lifelong love of animation, old and new. Disney, Studio Ghibli, Hanna Barbera, Tom and Jerry, Hanna Barbera, Looney Tunes and also the works of Tex Avery and Fleischer. With a broader knowledge of animation styles, directors, studios and how it was all done actually love it even more now.
Have also loved William Shakespeare's work from an early age, remember very fondly reading various parts aloud in primary and secondary school English classes when studying the likes of 'Macbeth', 'Much Ado About Nothing' and 'Twelfth Night' and various film adaptations such as Kenneth Branagh's 'Much Ado About Nothing' and Roman Polanski's 'Macbeth'. So a large part of me was hugely intrigued by 'Shakespeare: The Animated Tales', with such a high appreciation of both animation and Shakespeare. There was also the worry of whether Shakespeare would work as short animated adaptations compressed and condensed, when some much longer adaptations have suffered.
It was wonderful that 'Shakespeare: The Animated Tales' not only lived up to expectations but exceeded them. All my worries of whether it would work quickly evaporated when it absolutely did work and brilliantly. Even with the short lengths, the essence and spirit of all the plays (almost all among his most famous, best and most timeless) are handled superbly and they don't suffer from the condensation, nothing is incoherent which is a big achievement seeing as most of the stories here have very complicated plots. Not all the humour is there in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' sure, but that's forgivable when it's still engaging and very funny.
Shakespeare's colourful and thought-provoking language is as colourful and thought-provoking as one would hope, so many recognisable moments with all their impact. All in a way to appeal and be understandable to a wide audience, being easy to understand for younger audiences (of which the series is a perfect introduction of Shakespeare to), with such complex text and plots a lot of credit is due. Adults will relish how the text is delivered, the many quotable lines and how well the essence of every story is captured.
Younger audiences and adults alike will marvel and laugh out loud at the more comedic adaptations (so 'Twelfth Night', 'Taming of the Shrew' and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream') and children won't be too scared by the darker and more dramatic adaptations like particularly 'Macbeth', 'Richard III' (both very dark stories so the approach is appropriate) and parts of 'The Tempest'. A personal favourite from 'Shakespeare: The Animated Tales' is 'Twelfth Night'.
The animation is very appealing to look at, colourful (both light and dark depending on the basic tone, whether dark or comedic), nicely drawn and atmospheric and perfectly suited to the various characters and tones of each of the plays. The music is never inappropriate, the narration is never over-explanatory or annoying and always sincerely delivered and the voice acting is remarkably well done and often spot on (many having much experience in Shakespeare), with many perfectly cast and some that seem odd choices on paper turn out very well.
Overall, really wonderful and really does work. Not many of the adaptations will be up there up there with the best or most definitive adaptations but that's beside the point, what matters is how well made it is and how it makes the most of an interesting concept that washes away any worries as to how successfully it's executed. 10/10 Bethany Cox -
Rectangular_businessman5 May 2012This show does an amazing job adapting the plays written by William Shakespeare into an animated format.
Each chapter is done with a different animation style, in order to capture the mood of each play: While the tragedies and serious works have a dark atmosphere and a more realistic visual style, the comedies and dramas have a more colorful atmosphere and a more cartoonish character design. The use of all those different styles works very well, and even when the original plays are presented in an abridged format, all the chapters from this series capture very well the essence of those literary masterpieces, with all the lyricism and subtext contained in them.
"Shakespeare: The Animated Tales" is brilliant in every possible way, and even when some episodes are better than others, the whole series is a must –see.
Some notable episodes are "Hamlet", "King Richard III", "and The Winter's Tale"and"As you like it". -
smilingrid-m13 November 2014Relatively recently, the BBC has become a beacon of popular culture. The television channel broke into this category with the aid of shows with cult followings and well-known actors- remakes like Doctor Who (2005), re-imaginings like Sherlock (2010), and historical dramas like Downton Abbey (2010). Before this modern era of broadcast, the BBC produced a slew of well-received and painfully detailed (at least, to my younger, crankier self who used them to stay up past bedtime) miniseries. Some examples that come to mind are the 1973 four hour long Jane Eyre and the 1995 six-episode Pride and Prejudice. Around that same time, apparently, they cut Shakespeare's plays to under a half an hour (25:47, to be exact) and filmed them using Claymation. Clearly the second half of the twentieth century was a branching point for the BBC, turning away from animation films (short though they may have been) and towards live-acted series with big name actors (for example Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle in P&P, way to start that trend with a bang!). Since the BBC's Animated Tales recounting of The Taming of the Shrew is so shortened, it is understandably a bit simplified. The enveloping narrative gets a bit rushed through, with only the barest bones of that story line coming through. The drunkard is found, the lord decides to play his trick, and the scene cuts to him passed out in a poster bed. From there, his name is only mentioned in passing, no one dresses up as Christopher-Sly-turned-Lord's wife, and he never leaves his borrowed bed or changes from his borrowed pajamas. Once the play within the play begins, the simplification continues. Kate and Petruchio's portion of the play becomes the meat of the entire twenty five odd minutes. Both Bianca's complicated story with her multiple suitors and Lucentio's subterfuge in swapping places with his servant in order to woo her under her father's nose become background noise. The only times they come into clarity are when they feed back into the drama of the "taming." First, Bianca's situation and her options are used as a way to introduce Kate and establish her as her sister's foil. Then, the two marriages other than the focus couple's and the ways they come about (sneakily dating and older widow as backup plan) are sped through in order to bring said couple back to Padua and lay the groundwork for the competition of wives. Even so, the explanation of these side tales is delivered through the tiny narrator who seems to exist in both the play and reality, without a clear position in either. The "taming" itself is even condensed. This begins on their wedding day, when Petruchio refuses to allow Kate to eat or celebrate with their guests. Instead, Petruchio manhandles a protesting Kate out of the hall, onto a horse, and through a thunder storm. They arrive at their home to find frenzied servants, whom Kate meets in complete disarray from a tough journey that included rough riding, falling from her horse, and more water and mud than her bridal getup could survive. From there, Petruchio refuses her food under the pretense that it is burnt and flings her bedclothes from her chamber. He also rips and tears her new clothes in front of her. There is also the argument the two have over whether it is the moon or the sun in the sky. These last two seem to have the greatest impact on Kate. In the first night, she responds to the food withholding with the normal despair of someone who had traveled in less than ideal circumstances. We Don't see her reaction to her room being turned upside down because she is in the room. When her clothes are ripped, though, she falls immediately into despair. She gently touches the scraps and weeps that they were the finest she'd ever seen. While debating the time of day, Kate puts up what seems like a token resistance before claiming to believe whatever he husband says. Even then, though, she doesn't appear fully "tamed," so the competition scene seemed a little abrupt to me. A huge difference I noticed between this adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew and others I've seen (Kiss Me Kate and the version with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton come to mind), is the lack of emphasis placed on spanking. The only time Petruchio hits Kate in such a way is when they first meet and exchange barbed words while dancing. He pats her behind when he says that everyone knows where the wasp keeps its stinger. I'm assuming this change in emphasis stems both from the fact that they're not people and from the evolving ideas regarding women and men's interactions in the 30 odd years between the films were produced.